HRVH Training

Digitization Basics for Hudson River Valley Heritage: A Workshop Series Required for Contributors to HRVH

This workshop series, presented by Southeastern NY Library Resources Council (SENYLRC) staff, is designed to provide you with the basic skills necessary to participate in HRVH: management, copyright, digital imaging, metadata and CONTENTdm (software application). The goal is to develop staff with the expertise to create and maintain digital collections, on their own, with the assistance of SENYLRC staff. This workshop series is intended for staff members at libraries and cultural heritage organizations that are ready to embark on digital projects.

Organizations that currently contribute to HRVH are encouraged to send new staff members to the training or attend again if they need a refresher on any of the topics covered in the workshops.

The scope of your project and your workflow will determine the time commitment necessary to digitize. While this work will be accomplished outside the workshop time, SENYLRC staff will monitor the progress and make site visits for hands-on assistance at participating organizations.

Workshop Descriptions

Management:
Tthere are many questions that need to be answered before you can start your digital project that involve goals, audience, costs, time, materials selection, equipment and more. We will explain all of the steps necessary to implement a successful digitization project, from the initial plan though your project's implementation.

Topics covered include:

Planning

Target audience

Mission/goals/objectives

Selection—what to digitize

Digital conversion process

Preservation

Evaluation

Marketing and promotion

Copyright:
There are many issues involved with publishing digitized materials on the Internet that involve copyright status and permissions. In this session we will discuss U.S. Copyright laws as they relate to digitization -- public domain, fair use and library exemptions. The main focus will be on evaluating the status of the materials you plan to digitize by determining if these materials are owned by your organization or in the public domain.

The goals of your digital project, the items you plan to digitize, and the target audience for your digital collection(s) are all important factors when making decisions about digital imaging equipment, image quality and file format. This hands-on session will introduce participants to the basic aspects and techniques of scanning for digital projects. Participants are encouraged to bring one or two items from their collections for the hands-on portion of the session.

Metadata creation is an essential part of digital collection development. Consistently applied metadata enhance the access to and interoperability of digital objects. This session will provide participants with an overview of the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set and its application in HRVH.

CONTENTdm™ is the digital asset management software package licensed by SENYLRC to host HRVH. It was developed for use by libraries, archives, museums, and historical societies to simplify certain processes in the development of digital collections. The software allows HRVH contributors to easily import, store, index, describe, and manage their digital resources.

In this hands-on session, you will learn how to:

Use the CONTENTdm Administration Web site to manage your digital collection

Import and describe digital objects using the CONTENTdm Project Client